人活著，恐懼什麼？為什麼恐懼？如果不恐懼，能不能好好活著？此種戒慎恐懼的心情係本文之研究起點，也是結論。死亡係一條回歸之路，到哪裡去，使人感到安心和無所恐懼？活著並不是最辛苦的事，死了不知道要往何處去，讓人更為驚恐，於是生命有了各種的延壽離死之活動，代代相傳形成一種生死學問。自秦漢以還，古籍記載「不死靈藥」，通過服食仙養之術，可以白日昇仙，跨越生死界限；此種解除恐懼、生死越界之哲思，由道家養生學開其端，魏晉神仙可學之名理繼其續，而在唐人醫藥學發展與仙藥類小說之書寫中得到承繼、轉化與傳播。唐人之仙藥敘事，揭示仙藥可以解除「痛苦」。由病而生苦，由苦而致死，無論貧富貴賤，沒有人可以避免這種恐懼、威脅，仙藥提供了一條解除死亡與恐懼之道。本文以唐人小說為主要探討對象，分析其中與仙藥敘事相關之文本，闡釋仙藥祛疾濟世、超凡入仙之生死越界哲思。 What do we fear in life? Why do we fear? Without fear, could we live better? The mental state of fear serves as the starting point of inquiry in this essay, and I will come back to it in the conclusion. Death is a path of returning. But returning to where? Not knowing where we would go after death makes us fear it. Therefore, generation by generation, we humam beings have developed various kinds of activities for preventing death and prolonging life. In China, since Qin and Han Dynasties, taking immortal medicines have been recorded as a way to cross the boudary between life and death and to become immortals. This kind of solution for overcoming the fear of death and the philosophical reflections on it were initiated by the health maintenance activities of Taoism, succeeded by the inquiries into how it is possible to become immortals in Wei and Jin Dynasties, and further inherited, spread and developed by the medical science and the writing of novels on immortal medicines in Tang Dynasty. The narratives on immortal medicines in Tang novels revealed that taking immortal medicines is able to solve our sufferings caused by illness which would otherwise lead to death. Nobody could avoid the threats and fear of death. However, taking immortal medicines serves as the solution for overcoming them.This essay focuses on Tang novels and attempts to analyze their narratives on immortal medicines to clarify the philosophical reflections of life and death implied in them.
